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The Sonic franchise has one of the most thriving and active fan communities out there, both in terms of avid casual fans and also modders and hackers alike, so much so that the fandom has yearly events regarding fan games, mods and hacks made by the community and inspired by or created Sonic games in general, with one of these events being the Sonic Hacking Contest (SHC).

The Sonic Hacking Contest has been going strong for more than two decades now (with The Vault having archived contests since 2012), with the contest usually taking place at the beginning of October, but this year was an exception due to the release of Sonic Superstars, so in order to accommodate for the new release, the contest was pushed back a couple of weeks, and it officially starts off with its contest week today, October 23rd, with several popular Sonic-centric YouTube channels focusing on it, like Tails' Channel or SomeCallMeJohnny, which will stream all of the contest entries submitted.

The Contest Week will go from Monday, October 23rd up to Sunday, October 29th, and each submitted contest entry will be judged and given a specific based on a variety of metrics, ranging from things like Best Visuals, Best Audio, Best Level Design, Best Character Implementation, etc., to even absurd things like Most "WTF?!". The Contest is also open for the general community as well, with some entries being applicable to Community Trophies as well. There's also The Expo", which is more for exposition projects, which won't be participating in the main contest, but can still be downloaded and tried out at the same time.

Each entry can be downloaded and tested, and the community can give feedback during the week so that the authors can create patches during the week for an overall better experience with the submitted entries.

Sonic Hacking Contest website
SHC 2023 Contest Entries
SHC 2023 Expo Entries

 

[ciaomao]

Dude, it was a joke. Don't take it seriously ffs

ok, don’t worry. i didn't get the joke indeed, but no problem, i hope you don't feel offenced. i think what some here confuse is the difference between a legal rom patch and the illegal abuse of the n ip.

 

[_47iscool]

I noticed another hack on the site that combines multiple sonic games into one ROM.

While this one is nice, there is another hack called "Sonic 4 in One" by someone called "Natsumi" that contains some really not-so-nice text near the end of the the ROM. Really disgusting perverted stuff too.

I found it by accident because sometimes I like to use HxD to scroll through ROMs.

I wonder if anyone else has found said text, because if they do, the ROM will probably be removed by most or all sites that host it. Because creating a story that involves forcing such a sick act on another person is disgusting.

 

[NinStar]

I noticed another hack on the site that combines multiple sonic games into one ROM.

While this one is nice, there is another hack called "Sonic 4 in One" by someone called "Natsumi" that contains some really not-so-nice text near the end of the the ROM. Really disgusting perverted stuff too.

I found it by accident because sometimes I like to use HxD to scroll through ROMs.

I wonder if anyone else has found said text, because if they do, the ROM will probably be removed by most or all sites that host it. Because creating a story that involves forcing such a sick act on another person is disgusting.

Now that you mentioned it I decided to check, and indeed the text is in there, that is so bizarre because I've never seen someone mention it before, to me it sounds like a bad taste fanfic involving other members of the hacking community, and even if they are aware of it the content of the text is so graphic that is should be against the rules.

 

[ciaomao]

I noticed another hack on the site that combines multiple sonic games into one ROM.

While this one is nice, there is another hack called "Sonic 4 in One" by someone called "Natsumi" that contains some really not-so-nice text near the end of the the ROM. Really disgusting perverted stuff too.

I found it by accident because sometimes I like to use HxD to scroll through ROMs.

I wonder if anyone else has found said text, because if they do, the ROM will probably be removed by most or all sites that host it. Because creating a story that involves forcing such a sick act on another person is disgusting.

people are strange. i haven't read this text, but after your description i wonder about the purpose. is it supposed to shock? but then why is it hidden in the code? there are other examples that make more sense, like the amiga version of dragons lair.

 

[ShadowOne333]

I noticed another hack on the site that combines multiple sonic games into one ROM.

While this one is nice, there is another hack called "Sonic 4 in One" by someone called "Natsumi" that contains some really not-so-nice text near the end of the the ROM. Really disgusting perverted stuff too.

I found it by accident because sometimes I like to use HxD to scroll through ROMs.

I wonder if anyone else has found said text, because if they do, the ROM will probably be removed by most or all sites that host it. Because creating a story that involves forcing such a sick act on another person is disgusting.

From what I could gather, that hack is way too old, and the forum threads to download both it and the source code are down currently.
I traced the hack back to Sonic Hacking Contest 2016, it's the only one where you can download it now it seems, and you have to go out of your way to find it.

Older SHC's are hosted in "The Vault" section of the SHC site, so you can find the hack there, but from what I read it's just a pretty meh story, nothing but something about a guy having an online crush on some other guy and meeting him in an event or something, meandering story with foul words thrown here and there to spice it up.
It's lengthy and somewhat of a foul-mouth, so if you want to read it and you're easily offended, you've been warned (somewhat).

 

[NinStar]

Older SHC's are hosted in "The Vault" section of the SHC site, so you can find the hack there, but from what I read it's just a pretty meh story, nothing but something about a guy having an online crush on some other guy and meeting him in an event or something, meandering story with foul words thrown here and there to spice it up.
It's lengthy and somewhat of a foul-mouth, so if you want to read it and you're easily offended, you've been warned (somewhat).

You are making it sound less worse than it actually is, I don't even know if I'm allowed to mention what the text actually describes by words, the entire thing is just fucked up even as a joke or a weird fanfic. Still, it is bizarre that nobody (that I'm aware) caught it earlier, it is worse when you consider that a huge part of the public playing sonic hacks and fangames are children, and some curious kid would probably find it sooner o later.

 

[Metoroid0]

sonic hacking contest is the only exciting thing in gaming these days.

 

[console]

I always love Sonic games. Why not we need more different sonic games with new levels and areas?

If most levels and areas are somewhere hard to very hard if have ceil, wall, floor, bottom (Lava, green/purple poison water, sewer, electric, spikes, etc) killer machine come toward us then we have running everywhere like crazy! That's would be epic if have many traps like killer bottom/ceil/wall/floor machines in most levels and areas would be awesome! Only for anyone like hard to very hard or hardcore!

 

[PacBunnyXV07]

I'm hoping for someone to make a Better Sonic Heroes (GC) mod, they already made one for Shadow the Hedgehog & Sonic Rider! What I'm not hoping for is more Sonic 1 romhacks where you start Green Hill Zone and one thing changes.

 

[Metoroid0]

i take a sandwitch and some popcorns every time i see sonic hacking contest video like this.
Only thing right now that legitimately interests me and that is not corrupted by corporate greed.